Emerald Princess of Vernea
Bonus Instalment: Up the Pagoda
Chapter OneYuffie ran quickly across the stone path. Her feet darted across the stone, moving so fast that they were only a blur. Her dark hair flew freely behind her and across her face, but she just brushed those loose strands aside and kept on running. All she could hear was the sound of the wind blowing past her ears, her mind completely focused on the daunting task ahead.
She passed underneath a grove of trees, the shadows of their leaves creating tiny, dancing patterns on the stone steps as she jumped up, more than a few steps at a time, and broke out into the clearing. The pagoda was ahead of her – standing like the overgrown watchtower it was designed to be.
But the pagoda was there for another use, and for a use that Yuffie knew so well. Inside that pagoda were the Five Sacred Gods – the most powerful warriors in all of Wutai. The pagoda was the test of strength, built to test any warrior who dared to try and climb its five floors. Yuffie had tried many times to climb the pagoda, but had never made it past the first floor. Today, however, she felt strength she had never felt before, and in her mind she knew that she would climb the pagoda today.
She stepped up to the slide-open doors and stopped, taking enough time to gaze up at the five floors standing over her. On each of those five floors, the Five Sacred Gods were waiting for her. She glanced back long enough to spot Cloud and the others walking up behind her, before she grabbed hold of the doors and pushed them open. Light poured onto the floor of the pagoda, falling upon a strange figure sitting at the back of the room.
"Oh, Miss Yuffie!" the figure exclaimed, raising a hand to blot out the strong rays of light that were falling on his face. He blinked for a few seconds, and peered out at Yuffie. "Will you be climbing the pagoda today?" he asked, once his eyes had adjusted to the light.
Gorky, or 'Old Goat' as Yuffie liked to call him, was the master of the first floor in the pagoda trials. The first of the Five Sacred Gods, Yuffie had never been able to defeat him before. He was fairly old, but was by no means weak. Every time she had challenged Gorky he had defeated her with ease, but Yuffie had no intention of letting the same thing happen this time.
Yuffie let go of the doors and stepped confidently into the pagoda, glancing around momentarily at the pagoda's four walls. She always felt a strange sense of pride whenever she stepped into the pagoda. It was as though the power of Da Chao and the Sacred Gods flowed within it, empowering her with each step she took. It was a silly thing really, but Yuffie could not deny it.
"Yeah, that's it," she replied finally, stopping and putting her hands on her hips.
A small smile appeared on Gorky's old face, and he slowly climbed to his feet. The folds of his green kimono fell loose as he stood up, and nodded at the young ninja. "Then I, Sacred Gorky, will be your opponent on the first floor!"
Yuffie nodded back, and reached behind her to unhook her shuriken from her belt. She noticed as she pulled the weapon round that the blades were looking a little blunt and worn – worn down from the many fights that she had fought her way through since joining Cloud and the others.
Before the first trial started, Gorky stepped back and clapped his hands loudly. Seconds later footsteps could be heard echoing from the open doorway in the back wall. A young boy then stepped out, pushing his black hair out of his eyes and brushing his top down. He barely glanced at Cloud and the others as they stood waiting at the pagoda's entrance, and looked at Yuffie. Yuffie remembered this boy – he often watched the first floor fights.
"Yo!" he said in a loud, bratty voice, filled with arrogance. "They call me Shake! I'll be watchin' your fight with Gorky!"
Now that everything was prepared, Gorky turned back to Yuffie. "Then, begin!" he announced loudly. He raised his arms up to the air and called loudly into the pagoda, "Power Change!"
Yuffie prepared herself as a deep blue cloud began to rise up from the ground, seeping out from the floorboards around Gorky's feet. The cloud grew larger as it rose up, swirling around Gorky's legs and chest and finally his face, until he was completely encased in blue cloud. Faint bolts of lightning crashed loudly deep within that cloud, but Yuffie could not see anything that was going on inside, although she knew what was happening. Inside that cloud Gorky would be changing, transforming into the perfect shape to test the limits of Yuffie's power.
Before the transformation could be completed, Yuffie leapt up off the ground and threw her shuriken out in front of her, hoping to make the first attack while Gorky was in a vulnerable position. The blade zipped through the air at high speed, heading towards the swirling cloud.
As the blade drew near, a blur of blue and dark pink zipped out from the depths of the cloud. It narrowly missed the shuriken as it flew out and the weapon flew harmlessly into the back wall, its sharp blades sticking into the wood. The creature that emerged from the cloud kept on going up towards the ceiling, where it stopped and turned to look down at Yuffie.
The creature that Gorky had become looked very different from the normal, human Gorky, and it was easy to see why he was known as one of the Sacred Gods. The magic of the cloud had transformed him into an ominous winged beast, with strong muscles swelling beneath dark blue and pink skin that looked to be as though as nails. Two powerful wings rose up out of the creature's shoulder blades, its head large and with two sharp red eyes that glared out at Yuffie as she landed on the ground.
Yuffie was awestruck for a moment, even though she had seen Gorky transform into this creature many times before. It was an amazing reminder to her that Gorky was not just an old goat who sat for hours on end in an empty pagoda. He was a strong and powerful warrior, and she knew better than to take him lightly.
The monster-Gorky opened his mouth and gave a heart-filled roar that shook the whole first floor of the pagoda. His claws dug into the wood as he pushed himself off, diving down towards Yuffie while she stood defenceless in the middle of the room.
Yuffie was well prepared for his attack. As the beast drew closer to her she jumped up off the ground, missing the strong swipe of the monster's claws as he tried to claw her. Now up in the air she brought her feet down hard on his head, stamping hard. She was there for only a second, for she used that downward momentum to push herself back up, while Gorky was forced onto the ground.
That momentum carried Yuffie up and up into the air, flipping her backwards towards the back wall. She pushed out her feet again and touched the wall, her hands quickly grabbing the loose ends of the wooden pillars that she could grab onto. She did not stay there for long, for she used one hand to pull her shuriken free of the wall and pushed herself off again, aiming for Gorky.
She struck out with her shuriken as she neared Gorky, who quickly leapt up out of the way. The edge of the blade struck Gorky's face as he flew past, cutting a deep gash into the leathery flesh. It was the first time Yuffie had ever managed to do any kind of damage to Gorky, for usually he was much too fast for her. Now it seemed that she was the faster one, and that could be to her advantage.
She did not stop while she was on the ground and kept on running forward, trying hard not to lose the momentum that she had built up. She ran straight on towards the open pagoda door, where the others were still standing and watching the fight. Most of them moved aside as they saw her charging towards them, but Barret did not notice her until she was right up in front of him.
By then it was too late for Barret to move, but that was what Yuffie wanted. In a single, bounding leap she jumped onto his leg and then onto his gun-arm, using his stature and strength as a stepping-stone to flip her up into the air again.
Now upside down, Yuffie looked around for her target. She soon spotted Gorky, flying around the back wall, ready to swerve and dive down to move out of her way, and then strike her with an upward attack. Yuffie was already ahead of him and threw her shuriken with all her might.
The weapon zipped through the air, spinning like a top and whirring like a chainsaw gone wild. Gorky looked up in time and ducked down to avoid the blade, which was exactly what Yuffie knew he would do.
The shuriken struck, slashing straight through the middle of Gorky's right wing as his body ducked down. The four sharp blades cut through with ease and came straight out of the other side, cutting through the left wing as well before flying clear. With his two wings damaged Gorky tumbled down towards the floor of the pagoda, landing with a loud crash.
Yuffie was not done there. As the shuriken spun round and flew back to her like a boomerang, Yuffie caught it lightly in her fingers and threw it quickly down towards the ground.
This time Gorky had no chance to dodge the blade. While he lay vulnerable on the ground with his bleeding wings the shuriken came zipping down and struck him right in the middle of his back. Two of the blades became lodged there, stuck deep in the middle of Gorky's back.
That was all that was needed to finish Gorky off. That powerful strike struck so deep that it went right to the heart of the monster – to the source of its magic. Yuffie came down from the ceiling and landed firmly on the ground, before looking up and turning towards the Gorky-monster.
As she turned, she saw something strange begin to happen to Gorky. The strange blue cloud appeared again, this time seeping out of the deep wounds caused by Yuffie's shuriken. It seeped out like blood, dripping onto the ground and beginning to swirl around the monster's body, encasing him entirely in cloud once again.
Yuffie watched as the cloud swirled and twirled around the floor. She almost jumped when she saw something metal fly out of the cloud, and quickly raised her hand to catch her shuriken as it flew back to her.
The cloud slowly began to fade again, and Yuffie saw that there was nothing left of the Gorky-monster. The monster had gone, and Gorky had returned to his normal human self again, kneeling on the floor. He began to stand up again, and Yuffie held up her shuriken again.
However, there was no need for Yuffie to fight again, as Gorky turned to her and smiled. "Here I am, Miss Yuffie!" he said cheerfully.
Yuffie lowered her shuriken and shrugged her shoulders. "Of course!" she replied. Although her expression did not show it, she was beaming inside. This was the very first time in her whole life that she had defeated Gorky. Now she could move up to the second floor and face the second Sacred God!
The sound of clapping came from the corner of the room, and Yuffie remembered that Shake had been watching the fight. She turned to him and saw him clapping, a somewhat surprised smile on his face.
"Hmm, I thought you were just a wild girl, but you handled that pretty well!" he said, sounding surprised as well. He nodded his head towards the door behind him. "Well, we'll see how you do on the next one…"
With that, Shake turned and walked through the door, walking up the stairs to the second floor. Yuffie meanwhile turned back to Cloud and the others and grinned, showing her excitement for the first time. Cloud nodded slightly back at her, and Yuffie beamed even more. Then she turned and ran off towards the open door, running up towards the second floor of the pagoda to face her second trial.
Emerald: And this is the first chapter of the 'Up the Pagoda' instalment done. I'm trying to do one floor per chapter, so we should finish around Chapter 05.